St. Dunstan’s Responds
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church held a noon-day prayer vigil on Sunday, May 29 in response to the multiple instances of gun violence throughout the United States. Nick Alcorn, high school student, member of St. Dunstan’s, and founding member of the Youth Leadership Council, said, “I found out about it (the mass shooting at Robb Elementary) during school on Tuesday. By Wednesday, people (at school) didn’t know how to talk about it.” Alcorn and other teenage youth joined The Rev. Cindy Campos, Archdeacon of The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, in prayer. Dozens of community members huddled around a half-staffed U.S. flag encircled by 21 white crosses symbolizing the students and teachers killed in Uvalde, TX, last week.
“We had to do something,” said Campos, “Reaching out beyond our church community seemed the right thing to do. Together, no matter what our faith tradition or none, we are all children of God, loved equally. To live in fear is not acceptable. We will find a way to support one another.” Reflecting on the vigil, Archdeacon Campos continued, “I felt Nick’s heavy heart when reading the names. I found tears on my cheeks when I heard them aloud on Sunday.”
As a peer member of his school’s mental health team, Alcorn sought permission from his administration to lead the school toward health and healing. “A friend and I organized a moment of silence for our school when I read the names for the first time,” said Alcorn, “I’ve now read their names a couple of times, and they get heavier each time. As hard as it gets, it invigorates me to the cause.”
The prayer vigil can be found on St. Dunstan’s social media.
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I was not able to attend the prayer/vigil after the service, but I feel the same as most do. We have too many guns in this country and they are too available. Who needs an assault rifle to hunt deer? Something MUST be done to stop the senseless killing of human beings (especially innocent children).